Paten Acha

Ingredients

Acha

Dry Fish

Garden Eggs

Spinach

Yakuwa 

Onions

Pepper

Tomatoes

Locust Beans

Crayfish

Palm Oil

Seasoning

Preparation

Rinse your vegetables 

Rinse your dry fish in warm salted water as usual. 

Rinse out your Acha(hungry rice) preferably with a calabash to remove the sand and stones and put in a sieve for the water to strain out. 

Slice your Spinach and Yakuwa. When slicing the vegetables for Paten Acha, slice them in large sizes of about 2 inches in width

Chop the Garden Eggs into large chunks

Procedure

Place a pot water on fire and add Onions, pepper, tomatoes, fish, crayfish, seasoning, locust beans and palm oil

Cover the pot and allow to cook for 15 minutes. 

Pour in your Acha and allow to cook for about 15 minutes. When cooking Paten Acha, measure the right quantity of acha and put water in moderation because Acha soaks up a lot of water and rises. 

After 15 minutes, put your vegetables (garden eggs, yakuwa and spinach) in and stir well. Yakuwa gives the food a sour taste. 

Cover and allow to cook for 5 minutes

Serve and enjoy your meal of Paten Acha.

Enjoy some photos below...

Dry Okro

                                              

On the TV show, we made our dry Okro soup the northern way. Dry Okro soup can be served with almost anything depending on your preference. Some serve it with pounded yam, others with white Amala or Semolina. We had ours with corn meal (Tuwon masara).

Ingredients

Dry Okro (Okra). It is available for purchase in it's dry from or you can simply slice the fresh ones and pop them in your grill or out in the sun until very dry

Locust Beans

Dry Fish

Crayfish

Seasoning

Procedure

Pound your dry Okro to your desired texture. Some people prefer it smooth while some, rough. 

Blend your peppers and set aside. 

In making dry Okro soup, all the ingredients except the okro are added into the pot of water at the same time.

So, add your pepper, crayfish, locust beans, seasoning and fish then put your palm oil, cover and allow to boil for 10 minutes. 

After 10 minutes, you can put in your Okro and allow to cook for 5 more minutes

Your soup is ready. 

Miyan Karkashi

This is a very easy soup to make. It is very popular among the Northern people of Nigeria. 

Ingredients

Karkashi leaves

Potash (rock potash or mubi potash)

Dry Fish

Meat (Beef)

Pepper

Locust Beans

Method Of Preparation

First, you put some water on fire then add a little potash. 

(On the show, we did not use the more common Rock potash, we used Mubi potash and it is stronger than the regular rock potash so you need to use just a little. The essence of using it is to make the soup draw-y.) 

When the water boils, pour in the karkashi and do not cover the pot else it rises and loses its stickiness.

 In a separate pot of water, mix your other ingredients; fish, meat, pepper, locust beans (locust beans is very essential so make sure you put alot)

Allow to cook for about 5 minutes. 

After 5 minutes, season your Karkashi with salt and beat it with your cooking broom or two pronged wooden stick. 

Pour in your Karkashi into the sauce and stir. 

If you’ve followed all the instructions so far, you will notice that the karkashi is sticky and drawing nicely. 

Take it off the fire and serve with corn meal (Tuwon masara) or hungry rice meal (Tuwon Acha). 

In the Northern villages, people would spread mats in the shade of a tree and use their fingers to enjoy this delicacy. 

Whichever way you choose to eat it just make sure your enjoy this meal.